Accounting Infrastructure Research Articles

Determining the Level of and Potential for the Development of Tourism Clusters, Taking into Account Infrastructure and Urban Planning Factors

The optimal development of tourism clusters (quite active and effective, but not allowing overtourism) requires the development of methods for calculating their level of development and potential, taking into account the most important influencing factors. Consideration of the share of factors’ influence on the development of tourism clusters does not adequately take into account the infrastructure and urban planning components. This article, based on a literature analysis and expert assessment, identifies the main factors influencing the development of tourism clusters and shows the leading role of infrastructure factors and the provision of a cluster with high-quality hotel stock. Formulas are given for calculating factor indicators and determining the integral level of development of the cluster, as well as its development potential, including infrastructural. An example of calculations of the development potential of a cluster and management decisions made in the field of construction is given using the example of an emerging tourism cluster, “Kirzhach”. The results of the factor analysis and calculation of the cluster development potential will allow informed management decisions to be made not only for the investment and construction of hotel real estate and other tourism infrastructure, but also for cluster development priorities and areas of government regulation and support.

Traceable futures: the political temporality of forest facts in Peru’s tropical logging governance

ABSTRACT In Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazonian region, forest transport permits (or FTP) are the privileged accounting infrastructures by which the Peruvian state seeks to bring transparency to logging by making tropical timber traceable, thus securing its legality and sustainability in a context of rising national and international concern with tropical rainforests. But while FTP are often imagined as a means to secure a future where traceable forest facts can be established with certainty, they have also been enduringly suspected as artifacts prone to manipulation and deceit. In this article, I follow FTP as a way to explore the political temporality of forest facts in Peru’s tropical rainforests. I argue that foregrounding the ambivalent ontologies of FTP as both reliable accounting infrastructures and treacherous manipulable things allows us to appreciate the ways in which the past and the future are articulated in conflicting ways in the context of massive technocratic innovations in the governance of Peru’s tropical logging. By focusing on the political lives of a humble paper document, I thus examine how traceability becomes a fundamental condition of facticity as emerging regimes of global environmental governance drive the expansion of state data infrastructures onto previously untraceable terrains.

Digital Accounting Infrastructure: Needs, Gaps, and Opportunities in Indias Rural MSME Landscape

Digital Accounting Infrastructure: Needs, Gaps, and Opportunities in Indias Rural MSME Landscape

Digital disruption: unveiling antecedents propelling the revolution in contemporary accounting practices

Purpose This study aims to analyse the relative prominence of antecedents of digital accounting practices in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) industry. The Ministry of MSME defines the sector as comprising manufacturing enterprises and enterprises rendering services in terms of investment in plant and machinery and the annual turnover. The study is motivated by the rapid usage of digitalisation that has become the driving force guiding organisational development. Design/methodology/approach This study builds on technological–organisational–environmental framework to analyse the objective. It identifies five technological sub-antecedents, six organisational sub-antecedents and five environmental sub-antecedents. Data were gathered from 202 accounting professionals from MSMEs and academicians. Semi-structured interviews with experts were also conducted to corroborate the analysis of results. Then, the study applied fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to analyse the prominence. Findings This study finds that the technological antecedent captures the topmost position among all three antecedents, followed by organisational antecedent. They play a critical role in driving digitalisation in accounting practices. Among sub-antecedents, the highest priority is provided to technological accounting infrastructure, followed by cybersecurity precautions, training and allied services for accounting software, support from management and availability of accounting resources. Originality/value The study contributes to the scant literature by establishing hierarchy of relevance of different antecedents of digital accounting practices in MSMEs. It offers valuable insights to accounting practitioners and MSME owners/managers. They can pay attention to the prominent antecedents identified in this study to build a robust innovation structure for implementing digitalised accounting practices. The study also has significance to policymakers, specifically when they are more focused on the growth and development of MSMEs.

Accounting, reporting and verification of impact: Implications for sustainability: A commentary on Adams et al. (2024) “Styles of verification and the pursuit of organisational repair: The case of social impact”

Accounting and the accountancy profession sit at a consequential crossroads as the realities of planetary boundaries manifest through climate change, biodiversity loss and soil depletion, forcing societies and economic systems to transform. Alongside the effects sustainability has on corporations’ financial performance, future outlook and risk profile, accounting and reporting need to focus on externalities, with the aim of shedding light on the impacts firm activities have on society and the natural environment. Drawing on Adams et al. (2023), this essay continues the discussion on sustainability, impact and verification, calling for attention to the styles of verification prioritized by current accounting infrastructures. With the interlinkages between verification, reporting and accounting, the elements and types of information we emphasize in verification have implications for corporate activities and priorities and, therefore, for their negative social and environmental impacts, which we as societies ought to reduce urgently. While challenging, the terrain of accounting, reporting and verifying of impact offers opportunities for the accounting profession and for institutions to serve the public interest by helping societies transform. This may, however, require them to transform themselves.

EUROPEAN PRACTICES OF RURAL GREEN TOURISM: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

The relevance of researching rural green tourism in Europe is an important field that offers tourists the opportunity to enjoy nature and the countryside, interact with locals and participate in authentic rural life. Implementing environmentally sustainable green tourism practices will help conserve natural resources and reduce the environmental impact of tourism. Encouraging the development of local entrepreneurship and crafts can contribute to preserving the authenticity and economic development of rural areas. Rural green tourism can become a forum for cultural exchange between tourists and local people, promoting mutual understanding. A balanced approach that takes into account infrastructure needs, environmental sustainability, cultural aspects and the participation of local communities is key to the successful development of rural green tourism in Europe. The purpose of the study is to consider the theoretical and practical aspects of European practices of rural green tourism in the context of challenges, to analyse the prospects and opportunities for the development of rural green tourism. The research methodology of the topic includes the systemic method, which recognises the importance of studying the rural green tourism system in Europe, considering its elements and their interaction. The structural method aims at revealing the structure of the object, identifying the key elements and the relationships between them. Results. The article presents directions for the development of rural green tourism, proving that it has significant potential for promoting the development of rural areas and stimulating the economy. This issue is of practical importance, as the growing popularity of rural green tourism creates a demand for hotel, restaurant, excursion and other entertainment services, which can lead to the creation of new jobs, regional economic development and the preservation of cultural and traditional aspects of rural communities. Increased tourism potential can encourage local governments and businesses to invest in infrastructure such as hotels, restaurants, transport and entertainment facilities, and attracting tourists to natural areas encourages more environmentally conscious behaviour and the conservation of natural resources. It was concluded that the development of rural tourism is an effective tool for attracting tourists and creating a positive image of regions. The research on rural green tourism in Europe not only contributes to the development of the tourism industry, but also has an important impact on the socio-economic development and the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the regions.

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

PurposeThis study aims to articulate the conceptual foundations of the role of accounting infrastructure (calculative practice and the communicative dimension of accounting) in extractive industries (EIs) towards a sustainable orientation from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a literature-based analysis of the calculative property and communicative dimension of accounting in EIs, using the concepts of calculability, assemblage and other related concepts from ANT to identify potentialities and limits of the roles of accounting in this sector.FindingsWhile accounting infrastructure can influence social and environmental outcomes, it has not, as yet, led to ecologically and socially sustainable practices in EIs. Calculative properties and the communicative dimension of accounting infrastructure have capabilities to foster the phenomenon of “sustainability” in EIs by valuing, disclosing (reporting) and governing EIs towards a sustainable orientation. Conceptualizing sustainable EIs as a promissory economy, accounting infrastructure serves as a tool not only to represent past performance but also to enact the future: it helps to shape a sustainable future for the industry by informing and triggering behavioural decisions of EIs firms towards sustainable practices.Research limitations/implicationsThis conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future sustainability accounting research. The research agenda discussed in this paper can be used to enrich our understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability.Originality/valueThis paper charts a direction for future research by interpreting the role of sustainability accounting within networks of sociotechnical relations, using ANT concepts which attach importance to the dualism of nature and society. Conceptualizing sustainability accounting and reporting as an infrastructure, which draws more attention to the relationality characteristic of accounting, the study goes beyond the traditional interpretation of accounting as a mediation device and draws on a contemporary view of accounting by invoking the dynamic relation between accounting and society, in the context of EIs.

Policing, citizenship and the civil courts: how increased settlement of civil claims has impacted police accountability

Abstract It is recognised that civil litigation has a place within the police accountability infrastructure. However, the role of actions against the police for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, assault, and malicious prosecution (hereafter police actions) is underexplored. Taking citizenship as its analytical frame, this paper probes the relationship between police actions and the police complaints and discipline system over the last 60 years. Its primary focus is the Court of Appeal decision Thompson v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Hsu v Same [1998] QB 498 (Thompson). Here the potential for police actions to expose questionable police responses to officer misconduct, and failings in external oversight mechanisms, came into conflict with the drive towards proportionate civil justice. In prioritising the latter, Thompson increased police autonomy over settlement of police actions, thereby deprioritising the role of the courts in demarcating the limits of state interference with citizens’ rights. It is not suggested that Thompson should be overruled. Instead, it is contended that recognising the impact of the decision on subsequent reforms to police accountability processes and contemporary conceptions of the police-citizen relationship is crucial to understanding the roots of current disquiet concerning police accountability (and therefore to the development of meaningful reforms).

Evaluation of Homogenization in Metroplex Operations Based on Multi-Dimensional Indicators

The development of a Multiple Airport Region (MAR) could lead to fierce competition. To evaluate the level of homogenization between airports in a MAR, a homogenization evaluation method based on multi-dimensional indicators was developed. A multi-dimensional indicator system is proposed that takes into account infrastructure, integrated support, operational efficiency and airline networks. Then the Critic method and the Delphi method are used to assign hierarchical weights for each dimension of the indicators. The multi-layer homogenization matrix of the airport pairs within the MAR is derived. For airport pairs with high comprehensive homogenization, suggestions are provided according to analysis of the indicators. This study paper selected three typical MARs internationally to demonstrate the advantage of the proposed approach. The airport pairs with high a homogenous coefficient (greater than 0.5) were selected to analyze the reasons causing high homogeneity. Results show that the multi-dimensional indicators and hierarchical fusion captured the characteristics of the homogenization of MAR. Most airport pairs in New York MAR and in London MAR had strong differentiation of route network layout, airport pairs in Greater Bay MAR had ambiguous division of labor and low homogenization of route network, except CAN and SZX airports. Suggestions are discussed separately to mitigate the homogeneity of the airports in the MAS, thus, to improve the operation performance of the MARs.

Context-Aware Content Selection and Message Generation for Collective Perception Services

Collective perception messages (CPMs) inform neighbors about detected objects and their current status. Although CPMs can greatly contribute to improving vehicle perception, their performance will degrade if the wireless channel is saturated and/or vehicles must process excessively high amount of data to build such a perception. Channel saturation and processing overhead can be induced by transmissions of CPMs if vehicles and roadside infrastructure transmit CPMs too often with too much redundant information. Indeed, according to the current draft standard, the CPM generation frequency at individual vehicles and infrastructure can be as high as 10 Hz and depending on the perception capability, individual CPMs can be quite heavy (around 1500 Bytes), containing redundant information. It is hence important to integrate techniques that reduce information redundancy while providing sufficient perception with optimal resource use. In this paper, we propose context-aware communication schemes that control CPM content selection and transmission. Two types of contexts, particularly radio resource use (channel busy ratio: CBR) and infrastructure availability, have been considered in the proposed schemes. Using a network simulator, we evaluated the performances of the proposed schemes in terms of CBR, packet delivery ratio and awareness ratio. The simulation results show that the scheme that takes into account both resource use and infrastructure availability offers the best performance on all the above metrics.

Factors that influence the expansion of electric delivery vehicles and trucks in EU countries

As one of the possibilities of reducing exhaust emissions, the article takes into account infrastructure and electric vehicles used in road transport. Taking into account the goal to achieve a 30% share of vehicle electric, the number of charging stations available in the entire European Union is not sufficient. There has been a slight increase in sales of electric vans and trucks in the EU in recent years. This may be due to the lack of available infrastructure which would render it possible to power them, and also from the lack of available delivery vehicles in the market. What is interesting, the number of electric vehicles in a country is not necessarily in proportion to the number of available charging stations. It is the authors' intention as well to indicate the potential directions of the development of a low-emission cargo transport in the European Union. Upon the basis of the results, it is ascertained that there is a strong correlation between the value of a country's GDP and the number of electric vehicle charging stations. A moderate correlation is also observed in the case of a country's population, as well as in the case of the market share of registered electric delivery vehicles in a country.

Accountability infrastructures: Pragmatic compliance inside organizations

AbstractWe trace the pragmatic turn in regulatory governance from the level of the state and civil society to the coalface of the regulated organization. Since the 1980s, an array of new regulatory models has emerged. These models, while distinct, are unified in two related tendencies. First, they support the devolution of responsibility for standard setting, program design, and enforcement to the regulated organization. This delegation of governance to the organization itself has catalyzed the creation ofaccountability infrastructureswithin organizations, a network of offices, roles, programs, and procedures dedicated to aligning the organization's operations with external standards, codes of conduct, ethical and normative expectations, and regulations. Second, the diverse regulatory models depend, often implicitly, on organizational accountability infrastructures that incorporate the tenets of pragmatist philosophy: inquiry through narration, adaptation to context, and problem‐solving through experimentation. Reviewing the empirical literature on organizational compliance, we find ample evidence of inquiry through narration at the organizational coalface. However, we find limited evidence of narrating plurality in the organization and narrating experimentation as problem‐solving, as these activities create tensions with internal and external parties who expect singular, stable representations of governance. These tensions reveal an important incongruity between pragmatic governance across organizations and pragmatic governance within organizations. We contribute to the regulatory governance literature by documenting this important shift in the locus of governance to the organizational coalface and by charting a new research agenda. We argue that examinations of regulatory governance should be retraced in three ways. First, attention should shift to the organizational coalface, recognizing and analyzing accountability infrastructures as the central contemporary mechanism of governance. Second, the long‐standing focus in regulatory studies onwhyparties comply should shift to understandinghowregulated parties manage themselves to achieve compliance. Third, analyses of compliance should examine the tensions in narrating adaptation and experimentation, and the implications of such tensions for the achievement of prosocial outcomes.

A review of accounting developments in Africa

Entities in the developing nations of Africa, just like other entities in the developed world need to demonstrate good stewardship in order to attract and retain investment. This means that African countries need a robust accounting infrastructure to deliver reliable and comparable financial information. This paper reviews the current status of accounting in Africa, by looking at the structure of the accounting profession, oversight of accounting entities, currency and monetary control, the status of adoption of International Financial Accounting Standards, the level of accounting research in Africa, and developments in accounting pedagogy at African institutions of higher education. This overview is intended to provide a baseline from which future researchers can develop further investigations into the accounting profession across the continent or a region of Africa.

Consequences of permafrost degradation for Arctic infrastructure – bridging the model gap between regional and engineering scales

Abstract. Infrastructure built on perennially frozen ice-rich ground relies heavily on thermally stable subsurface conditions. Climate-warming-induced deepening of ground thaw puts such infrastructure at risk of failure. For better assessing the risk of large-scale future damage to Arctic infrastructure, improved strategies for model-based approaches are urgently needed. We used the laterally coupled 1D heat conduction model CryoGrid3 to simulate permafrost degradation affected by linear infrastructure. We present a case study of a gravel road built on continuous permafrost (Dalton highway, Alaska) and forced our model under historical and strong future warming conditions (following the RCP8.5 scenario). As expected, the presence of a gravel road in the model leads to higher net heat flux entering the ground compared to a reference run without infrastructure and thus a higher rate of thaw. Further, our results suggest that road failure is likely a consequence of lateral destabilisation due to talik formation in the ground beside the road rather than a direct consequence of a top-down thawing and deepening of the active layer below the road centre. In line with previous studies, we identify enhanced snow accumulation and ponding (both a consequence of infrastructure presence) as key factors for increased soil temperatures and road degradation. Using differing horizontal model resolutions we show that it is possible to capture these key factors and their impact on thawing dynamics with a low number of lateral model units, underlining the potential of our model approach for use in pan-Arctic risk assessments. Our results suggest a general two-phase behaviour of permafrost degradation: an initial phase of slow and gradual thaw, followed by a strong increase in thawing rates after the exceedance of a critical ground warming. The timing of this transition and the magnitude of thaw rate acceleration differ strongly between undisturbed tundra and infrastructure-affected permafrost ground. Our model results suggest that current model-based approaches which do not explicitly take into account infrastructure in their designs are likely to strongly underestimate the timing of future Arctic infrastructure failure. By using a laterally coupled 1D model to simulate linear infrastructure, we infer results in line with outcomes from more complex 2D and 3D models, but our model's computational efficiency allows us to account for long-term climate change impacts on infrastructure from permafrost degradation. Our model simulations underline that it is crucial to consider climate warming when planning and constructing infrastructure on permafrost as a transition from a stable to a highly unstable state can well occur within the service lifetime (about 30 years) of such a construction. Such a transition can even be triggered in the coming decade by climate change for infrastructure built on high northern latitude continuous permafrost that displays cold and relatively stable conditions today.

Explanations of news personalisation across countries and media types

News outlets worldwide increasingly adopt user- and system-driven personalisation to individualise their news delivery. Yet, the technical implementation of news personalisation systems, in particular the one relying on algorithmic news recommenders (ANRs) and tailoring individual news suggestions with the help of user data, often remains opaque. In our article, we examine how news personalisation is used by quality and popular media in three countries with different media accountability infrastructures - Brazil, the Netherlands, and Russia - and investigate how information about personalisation usage is communicated to the news readers via privacy policies. Our findings point out that news personalisation systems are predominantly treated as black boxes that indicate a significant gap between practice and theory of algorithmic transparency, in particular in the non-EU context.

Neoliberalism, accounting, and the transformation of subjectivities in social work: A study on the implementation of personal budgets

AbstractThis study examines, through the case of Personal Budgets in England, the role of accounting in transforming the subjectivities of social workers through a Foucauldian lens. The findings show how accounting can reshape the subjectivities of social workers serving as intermediaries responsible for the frontline implementation of neoliberal reforms. It does so through an empirical demonstration on how accounting harnesses an individual's autonomy and responsibility to nurture “productive” relationships between citizens and the state. Furthermore, the findings also highlight the vulnerability of social workers’ subjectivities from the installation of an accounting infrastructure with multiple capabilities. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how neoliberal policies transform subjectivities in social work and adds to the literature on accounting's biopolitical role in the reconstitution of such subjectivities. It also addresses the relative neglect of studies examining the role of accounting in neoliberal transformations of social work that, despite its significance for an ageing society and its attendant consequences for public finances, receives far less attention than healthcare reforms.

Neoliberalism, Accounting and the Transformation of Subjectivities in Social Work: A Study on the Implementation of Personal Budgets

This study examines, through the case of Personal Budgets in England, the role of accounting in transforming the subjectivities of social workers through a Foucauldian lens. The findings show how accounting can reshape the subjectivities of social workers serving as intermediaries responsible for the frontline implementation of neoliberal reforms. It does so through an empirical demonstration on how accounting harnesses an individual’s autonomy and responsibility to nurture ‘productive’ relationships between citizens and the state. Furthermore, the findings also highlight the vulnerability of social workers’ subjectivities from the installation of an accounting infrastructure with multiple capabilities. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how neoliberal policies transforms subjectivities in social work and adds to the literature on accounting’s biopolitical role in the reconstitution of such subjectivities. It also addresses the relative neglect of studies examining the role of accounting in neoliberal transformations of social work which, despite its significance for an ageing society and its attendant consequences for public finances, receives far less attention than healthcare reforms.

원칙중심 회계와 기업의 대응방안에 관한 연구 : 회계인프라를 중심으로

원칙중심 회계와 기업의 대응방안에 관한 연구 : 회계인프라를 중심으로

Rinse and Repeat: Understanding the Value of Replication across Different Ways of Knowing

The increasing pursuit of replicable research and actual replication of research is a political project that articulates a very specific technology of accountability for science. This project was initiated in response to concerns about the openness and trustworthiness of science. Though applicable and valuable in many fields, here we argue that this value cannot be extended everywhere, since the epistemic content of fields, as well as their accountability infrastructures, differ. Furthermore, we argue that there are limits to replicability across all fields; but in some fields, including parts of the humanities, these limits severely undermine the value of replication to account for the value of research.

Configuring the low performing user: PISA, TIMSS and the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT Scholars of the global phenomenon of international student assessments (e.g., PISA, TIMSS) have paid little attention to the ways in which student users of these material objects are configured in nations that are located at the periphery of knowledge production. Our analysis takes the United Arab Emirates as its case study to capture the social construction processes and relations of PISA and TIMSS users, agents and test objects within global educational accountability infrastructures. Drawing on evidence collected from interviews with principals, vice principals and teachers in nine schools as well as with government officials, we reveal how the state plays a role in the re/configuration of the user in this process. We also trace the discursive and emotional narratives that delineate usage and the institutional practices deployed to solidify user re/configurations. We argue that user configurations induce institutional reforms, cognitive remappings, and affective reactions which reflect adaptations being made by ‘real’ users to misconfigured material objects. We suggest that rather than blaming students for their poor performance on global tests, it is more appropriate to point to a failure in the material object’s obdurate design and monocultural user configuration.